Inheritance Tax Act business succession tax relief is not discriminatory

In this article the authors discuss the judgment rendered by the Supreme Court on November 22, 2013, which ruled that the business succession tax relief in respect of gift and inheritance tax (bedrijfsopvolgingsfaciliteit; "BOF") does not contravene the principle of equality. With reference to a judgment by the Breda District Court that the BOF discriminates against acquirers of non-business assets, five test cases were initiated with the question being whether the BOF indeed entails prohibited discrimination. The Supreme Court has ruled that the different tax treatment of business assets and non-business assets does not represent prohibited discrimination.

In the run-up to this judgment, a possible adjustment (scaling back) of business succession tax relief was discussed. Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that the different tax treatment of business assets and non-business assets does not represent prohibited discrimination, an immediate response by the government in the form of a scaling back of the existing tax relief is unlikely. In response to this ruling, Deputy Minister of Finance Mr. Weekers has now stated that as a result of this judgment by the Supreme Court, all assessments that were being dealt with in a joint procedure will be upheld. On December 4, 2013, the tax inspector therefore rejected the objections in a collective decision on the notice of objection.

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